#IWSG post -- March 1 Question: Have you ever pulled out a really old story and reworked it? Did it work out?

Here we are again! Another month, another security or insecurity. How this year is flying by!

It's always a good way to mark the beginning of the month by posting/reading for the IWSG. My head is full of other things this month, like heading off on a road trip through outback Australia -- 2.054 kilometres (1.276  miles) each way.

I leave today, March 1st.



Thanks to Alex's awesome co-hosts for the March 1 IWSG: Tamara Narayan,Patsy Collins, M.J. Fifield, and Nicohle Christopherson!

Today I'll go with the question:

Have you ever pulled out a really old story and reworked it?

Well, sort of. But the 'really old story' I'm talking about is my vampire novella. 'Under the Tuscan Moon' was my indulgence published in 2015 - written with an ancient slant to the language as it was more likely spoken in the 16th century. Some readers found the language off putting, others thought it was exquisite. Commercial viability has won, and after doing two posts on self-publishing I've used some of the feedback to kick start my sales. Probably the most important advice was to think about my target audience (thanks L Diane Wolfe). So I've done this, and have come up with a new title, new author name, and most importantly, new cover, so there's no doubt what lies inside the pages. Currently, I'm re-writing the whole story, galloping along in modern English at a much faster pace.

Along with my good friend Lynda Young, I attended a Joanna Penn lecture/discussion on self-publishing yesterday (basically, why would you do anything else, she asks?) Joanna is a great proponent of reworking her books -- new covers, fixing anything a reader may have pointed out etc etc. She staggered us by saying she does this monthly! Egad!

So, yes, I believe in reworking stories. I'll let you know how it goes when I re-publish.

Hope you have as much fun as I intend to this month!

And thanks for taking time out of your busy schedule to visit little 'ole me. Looking forward to visiting you as wifi and travel miles allow.

#IWSG post -- What I've learned through my self-publishing experiment.

Howdy people!

Thanks to Alex J Cavanaugh and his awesome co-hosts for February 1: Misha Gericke, LK Hill, Juneta Key, Christy and Joylene Buter!

The IWSG question of the month is: How has being a writer changed your experience as a reader?

Short answer: It's made me aware of all the 'so-called' rules of writing that are broken constantly by famous authors. But also, it's helped me to learn plot and structure which is hard to get just by reading the theory. Not that I'm there yet, but I've improved.

Long Answer: Go to Write...Edit...Publish where Pat Garcia has a great guest post on Critical Reading.

But today I want to come clean about what I see in the tricky world of publishing, in particular, self-publishing.  

WHAT I'VE LEARNED ABOUT SELF-PUBLISHING and selling books. (Not much, but I'm not overly insecure about it, just realistic.)

I formatted a book for Amazon just to test how it all worked. It stands alongside other compilations which include a story of mine. I received some great reviews for Under the Tuscan Moon, my vampire fantasy, but haven't sold many copies. I'll definitely be trying traditional publishing for my Paris novel.

This is my self-pub story...(not an episode of Law and Order).

• Formatting on Amazon is not hard if you follow their intricate instructions, just tedious. I always planned to hire someone to format for me, but as I said, I wanted to try it for myself at least once. Tick. :-)
• Amazon is very helpful, answering emails quickly and doing what they can to help you which is opposite to what I've read on some blogs. Tick. :-)
• Their 75% royalties only eventuate if you price your book high enough. :-(
• Setting up a bank account for receiving those non-existent royalties is a right royal pain. No doubt it's easier if you live in the US. I really think Amazon is for American citizens, so Donald Trump will most likely leave it alone. :-(
• You don't sell any/many books unless you make the first few pages of Amazon searches and how do you do that? A lot of spamming I'd wager. Or friendly bloggers could get together and all buy each other's books on the same day. :-(
• Self-publishing is difficult for people who hate self promotion or are basically lazy or don't care less if they sell a book or not. It takes a lot of effort to crack the market as exhausted authors will tell you. :-(
• Self-publishing works best for people who don't need sleep or are already traditionally-published best-selling authors (name recognition). :-(

Okay, IWSG-ers, if you have a moment, would you answer one/some/all of these questions for me? 

• Do you have any help to offer re selling books that  you're willing to share?
• Are you happy with Amazon if you're self-published? Do you sell most of your books through them? 
• Do you have a marketing plan?
• Do you see social media as an important marketing tool? (A future post).

Thanks for coming by. I hope to see you again!

While you're here, I'll do a plug for Write...Edit...Publish who announce their new challenge today. Please think about joining us if you haven't before or if you haven't for awhile. A new challenge comes out every second month. Check out the schedule at the top of my sidebar. There might be something that catches your imagination.

THIS MONTH, Back of the Drawer (not your average Valentine's challenge). Tell us your interpretation in a poem, a flash fiction piece of 1000 words or less, a non-fiction piece detailing your personal experience or someone else's experience, write a script, draw your dreams, or post a photograph or a photo essay. The genre is up to you. The artistic choice is completely yours.

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Do you have goals bloghop. Novels, novellas, short stories, travel articles...how has June been for you?

Earlier this year I joined this regular monthly Friday bloghop hosted by Misha Gericke and Beth Fred. It's a steadily growing list as writers realise it's a good motivation.

The reason I joined this hop was to keep myself honest, and honestly, reflecting on my goals for the month is a good motivation to push myself. So here it's the last Friday of June, ridiculous, so it's time again...

You're more than welcome to join this bloghop. All you need to do is read and follow the guidelines then SIGN UP HERE...

Your goal is the link title. Not your name or your blog's. This is so we can keep track of who's doing what. 

I signed up as Number 13,  'publish a novel and submit short stories' this year. 

MY WRITING LIFE IN JUNE 2016

MY PARANORMAL ROMANCE NOVELLA, BOOK TWO - The Vendemmia (The Harvest)

I am into the sequel to the second story in my  series Under the Tuscan Moon. Sorry for taking so long for those of you who have asked where is the second novella, but the research is taking longer than I'd planned. I hate reading sequels that are rubbish, written under duress, so bear with me.

In the sequel, my two 'loveable', ahem, vamps, Vipunin and Cuchulcain, have returned to Vipunin's castello where he lived before he was turned. Here Vipunin intends to be a very disruptive influence at harvest time. Ciassia and Sibon  are unaware they harbour a monster in their midst, a monster who will do anything to get what he wants...and he wants Ciassia. 

SHORT STORY UPDATE

Last time I gave an update on one of my Paris short stories, Carpe Diem, it was at 25,000 words. This story is lighting up my life and sending electricity through my fingertips as I type, so it is now at 30K+. So I figure my protagonists, Saskia and her lover Raphael, are demanding nothing less than novel length. When you meet these two, you'll know what I mean...

A quick mock up to give you the idea

Currently I'm sorting the chapters as there's a PAST and PRESENT element. I have a further motivation to get the structure right (even as I continue to write up their marriage in country France). I'm lucky to be attending a Margie Lawson immersion class in Brisbane in early August. I've worked through some of her online tutorials and this woman knows a thing or two about writing/editing.  As Margie says on her web page: "EXPECT to work for three full days (plus the afternoon and evening you arrive) dissecting, analyzing, and deep editing." I feel very blessed to have strong-armed my way into her seminar. I'm going to use Carpe Diem as my piece to work on with Margie.

WRITING ABOUT TRAVEL 

As regular visitors and blogger friends know, I wear a travel writer's hat. Well, I've been travelling again...to tropical North Queensland, so haven't achieved more than taking photos and making notes. No time to work on my travel articles, but it won't take long to rectify this now that I'm back home. 

MY PARIS COOKERY SCHOOL NOVEL

This is still waiting for November's NaNoWriMo. 

WRITE...EDIT...PUBLISH

Have done some guest posts, at Chrys Fey's in particular, in which I mention WEP's August challenge, GARDENS. I spent some time meandering around the Remembrance Gardens in Townsville. I felt a story coming on...Please join us in August if you love gardens--flash fiction, non-fiction, poetry, photographs, artwork...

WRAPPING UP...

So overall, June has been very low key as far as writing goes, but you've got to live your life. Major renovations at our beach house (next year our principal residence) are slowing me down writing-wise. I'm helping with the painting now. It'll be worth it when I can lock myself away in Den's Den which is about to be painted. Filling the bookshelves will be delightful.

READING 

I READ A LOT but haven't reviewed much this month. I'm concentrating on bloggers' books on my kindle. Just finished The House by the Lake by Ella Carey, an Aussie writer. Delightful! Already topped some of Amazon's best-seller lists. Set in Berlin and the US and follows her Paris Time Capsule based on the true story of an abandoned apartment in Paris. 

AIM HIGH

Any man who keeps working is not a failure. He may not be a great writer, but if he applies the old-fashioned virtues of hard, constant labor, he’ll eventually make some kind of career for himself as writer.– Ray Bradbury

How are you going with your 2016 goals? I'd love to hear from you. Please share in comments or join the hop.

Do you have goals bloghop...share them....Novels, novellas, short stories...

I joined this regular monthly Friday bloghop hosted by Misha Gericke and Beth Fred. The idea is simple. It's to keep us honest about what we hope to achieve in our writing. We post the last Friday of every month. Can you believe it's the last Friday of March today?!?

You're more than welcome to join this bloghop. All you need to do is read and follow the guidelines then SIGN UP HERE...

1) Beth and I Misha will be co-hosts of this list.
2) If you do enter your link into the list, please be supportive of the other entrants.
3) Keep us up to date with how you're doing. Update Day is on the last Friday of every month. Even if you don't think you achieved much or anything, write a quick post to say so. We can't encourage if we don't know. 
4) When you enter your blog's address write your goal as the link title. For example, my link's title will be "earn $7500 per month." Not your name or your blog's. This is so we can keep track of who's doing what. 

I signed up as 'publish a novel and submit short stories' this year.

MY WRITING GOALS for 2016 SO FAR...

MY PARANORMAL ROMANCE NOVELLA, BOOK TWO - The Vendemmia (The Harvest)
I have continued researching for the second in my paranormal romance series to follow Under the Tuscan Moon and the adventures of Vipunin and Cuchulcain. I have tons of notes and have begun structuring the story. My favourite research was on the ancient wine presses used in the 16th Century. 

A basket press from the Provence region of southeast France.

SHORT STORY UPDATE

Well-oh-well. My Paris short story has grown from a 1,000 word flash fiction originally published for #fridayflash. When I picked it up again, it soon grew to 2,000, then 4,000 words and someone offered to translate it into French! Tres exciting! But after sending it off to a critique partner, I received several suggestions on expanding some scenes. They were excellent suggestions. As a result, I now have 12,000 words...no longer a short story by some reckonings, but heading for a 15,000 word novella. Well, will my translator still be interested? I'm so excited. I'm loving how this story is growing.
TRAVELLING AGAIN 中国
So...in late March/early April I am travelling to distant lands. More in my IWSG post next week. When I return to the land of Oz, I will be working on my own little NaAprWriMo again and write every day. Last April I wrote 25,000 words on a Paris Cookery novel and hope to pick it up again as I'm SO EXCITED about this book but haven't been able to get to it for months! But the research has been delicious! So I'm pretty busy. 

Overall, March has been a very successful, wonderful writing month even though we embarked on major renovations at our beach house. Somehow I've clawed more time into my schedule, so maybe this bloghop is helping. Dropping one teaching day has definitely helped.

AIM HIGH
It's always a good idea to set yourself achievable goals, but it's even better to use the turbo power of imagination to help you get there. For example, you may decide that you'd be happy to have your body in better shape. Instead of just thinking: 'I'm going to tone and trim my waistline', bring on the drama. Try rephrasing that into something like: 'I want to turn heads as I walk down the street and wow people when I walk into a room'. Remember, when you use colourful, vibrant imagery it will be easier to achieve your goal and turn your dream into reality.

So...when you dream of your finished story...instead of just wishing you could reach the finish line, add drama. 'I want to write the most riveting, amazing story that people will love so much they will say to everyone in their reviews on Amazon and Goodreads--'You've got to read this story!' Imagine that!

How are you going with your 2016 Writing Goals? Please share in comments below or join the hop.

Do you have goals bloghop...share them....

On the spur of the moment I joined this regular bloghop hoted by Misha Gericke and Beth Fred . The idea is simple, really. It's to keep us honest to what we hope to achieve in our writing and we are to post about it the last Friday of every month. Can you believe it's the last Friday of February today?!?


You're more than welcome to join this bloghop. All you need to do is read and follow the guidelines then SIGN UP HERE...

1) Beth and I Misha will be co-hosts of this list.
2) If you do enter your link into the list, please be supportive of the other entrants.
3) Keep us up to date with how you're doing. Update Day is on the last Friday of every month. Even if you don't think you achieved much or anything, write a quick post to say so. We can't encourage if we don't know. 
4) When you enter your blog's address write your goal as the link title. For example, my link's title will be "earn $7500 per month." Not your name or your blog's. This is so we can keep track of who's doing what. 

MY WRITING GOALS for 2016

I signed up as 'publish a novel and submit short stories' this year. I have been researching for the second in my paranormal series to follow Under the Tuscan Moon and the adventures of Vipunin and Cuchulcain and have tons of notes. Now I need to get into the right headspace and get my notes into some sort of order. I was hoping to publish my second novella by the end of January, but this hasn't been possible as I've been away from home and not in a position to write as much as I wanted to. Just keeping up with the blogs and working on my Paris short story was all I achieved. 

So...in April I plan to create my own little NaNoWriMo again and write every day. Last April I wrote 25,000 words on a Paris Cookery novel and hope to pick it up again as I'm SO EXCITED about this book but haven't been able to get to it for months! But the research has been delicious!

Just writing the above has got me excited. Now I'm back home, I've dropped one day off my teaching schedule. Now I will have more time for writing.

Here is a great post from Juneta Keys with so many useful links regarding 

Marketing, Promotion, Self-Publishing For The Writer

How are you going with your 2016 Writing Goals? Please share or join the hop.

Amazon reviews--how they help sales.

 LET’S chat ABOUT… AMAZON REVIEWS

I came across an article on Hello...Chick Lit which got me thinking about  Amazon reviews. I vaguely knew reviewing an author's works on Amazon had more value than reviewing them on my blog or on Goodreads, but hey, how many hours are in the day? Many authors won't ask directly for an Amazon review because of the Amazon Review Police who stalk the highways and byways of the digital world, but here are some reasons to help each other out!

I've recently self-published on Amazon Kindle Select for the first time with my novella, Under the Tuscan Moon, and am not setting myself up as an expert on Amazon reviews or anything at all regarding publishing or promoting. I’m just sharing a small part of what I’ve learnt in hopes that it will help both authors and readers.

Have you ever sent bloggers and/or other friends a free copy of your book and asked them to read it then leave a review on Amazon? I have. I was secretly hoping they'd love it and would post a review. They told me they loved it, but the loving didn't extend to an Amazon review (yet) for most. I understand this. Authors often send me PDFs of their books and because my TBR list is ginormous, I've not even gotten around to reading them all, let alone reviewing. That's a pity. Since learning how important Amazon reviews can be, I've been upping my Kindle reading of bloggers' books and posting more Amazon reviews. (If you've sent me a copy of your book, send me an email and remind me that you're still waiting for that review and I'll send you to the top of the list!) 

Blog Tours

booksandsuch.com

Most of us gladly participate when someone has a new book coming out and asks us to help spread the word. It introduces people to the book and the author. The 'To buy' link might even lead to a sale or two if the planets align. Really, anything that gets eyes on a book is good.

I review my reads on Goodreads because every year I participate in their reading challenge. (I read/reviewed 120+ books in 2015). You need over 10 reviews on Goodreads to be able to add your book/s to certain groups which gives you more exposure. I went off reviewing on Amazon when they took down some of my reviews of blogger friends' books. But we can’t let that stop us. Amazon reviews can impact sales rankings, so is the most useful thing we can do for our blogger/author friends if their book is available to buy on Amazon. (And fingers crossed they won't take it down).

Unless you're in the upper echelons, chances are you spent more on getting your book out there than you will ever recoup, especially if you self-publish. That’s a crying shame. There are LOADS of amazing books out there with way too few sales because people don’t know how good they are. Who is going to scroll to Page 500 to find a book? Some amazing books could be discovered if readers could take 10 minutes to write something—it doesn’t have to be long—that would be so helpful to the author's rankings and 'discoverability'. 

So if you follow a blog tour, do that author a favour--buy their book (usually cheaper than a cup of joe), find some time to read it (sure, this is the hardest part), then, for that author's sake, REVIEW IT!! Even if you don't like it THAT much, you can still review it. You don't have to give it 5 stars!!! I'm loath to say this, but apparently even a bad review is better than no review! It still ticks the algorithm boxes!

IMAGE: chronicallyme.com

Why are Amazon reviews important?

Well, duh! More sales = higher rankings.  If your book is selling, it goes higher on the list. And reviews help sell books.

Verified Purchase reviews will count MORE towards the rankings of Amazon sales. 

But that doesn’t mean you can’t leave a review for a book you didn’t buy through Amazon.

Reviews with ‘likes’ count more towards rankings and *algorithms. (If you like the techie details, read the section at the end).

So if you read a review that you like – hit the ‘like’ button!  Not only does it help the reviewer’s Amazon review stats but it helps the author with a ‘higher ranking review’.

Amazon supposedly recommends books different ways based on the number of reviews.

20-25 reviews: Amazon will include your book in the ‘Others also bought’ section and the ‘You might like’ section.

50-70 reviews: Amazon may highlight the book in spotlight ads and possibly include your book in newsletters.

100+ reviews: Amazing promo results for authors (it is said).

Is it just reviews that help? Who really knows? But anything that helps an author up their rankings is a good thing. And we can all help this happen.

• Getting your book out there into the eyes of readers will help sell books.
• Building your author platform and engaging with readers and bloggers will sell books.
• Great writing with great content will sell books.

And Amazon reviews matter.  They take 5 - 10 minutes to write. An author would prefer a quick review to no review. Do something amazing for your blogger/author friends.

• How many reviews does your book have on Amazon?
• How did you get those reviews?
• What is the most successful part of your Author Platform?
• Share with us!

And if you're up for another Valentine's writing challenge, WEP's Valentine's challenge goes live from Feb 17-19...flash fiction, non-fiction, poetry, photos, art...we're open to all! Please join us! You can sign up right here in my sidebar under the big red picture!

 AMAZON REVIEWS: AMAZON REVIEWS: AMAZON REVIEWS: AMAZON REVIEWS